Working OT

That's what a US magistrate will be doing shortly as the details of the charges against Oliver Thomas are to be made known this morning in federal court. Those charges are expected to consist mainly of illegal payments made by a city parking vendor to Thomas.

So far, these are my impressions.

• Local commentators and media are again spending too much time worrying about the city's "image" problem. This article or "update" or whatever once again delves into that silly realm. Following Nagin's comments last week about "keeping the brand out there" Varg wrote,

  Then of course there is the notion that he is referring to our home as a “brand.” And referencing marketing techniques as a tool in governing a city. Nothing against those of us working in marketing and publicity but, they tend to operate in a realm that is often detached from reality, where they believe the product they are slinging is the bees knees and keep trying to drive that home to everyone their ploys and campaigns reach, hoping that someone else will buy into it. That’s fine when you are shilling smoothies or a breakfast burrito but when it is in reference to a city recovering from “the biggest godamn disaster in the history of America,” it conjures up images of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

  Quite often, the T-P is also guilty of fiddling in superficial matters of "image". It's an easy storyline to write and a winning one for paper sales since it plays right into the familiar old NOLA self-hating vibe that's been around since the first white-flighters moved to Metairie. Image-conscious buffonist headlines write themselves. Meanwhile the interesting stuff gets buried at the end of the political column.. or somewhere in the blogosphere.



• In that regard, I think Celcus and Oyster are on to the most disappointing aspect of this development. While OT is far from perfect as a public servant, he had the potential as a candidate for mayor in 2010 to move the city past some of the racial divisiveness that has paralyzed its politics over the past two years. Now, if Thomas wishes to continue with his political career, as Editor B has predicted, I can envision a campaign based on the kind of persecuted narrative that feeds rather than disarms the mistrust already afoot. Still.. OT can choose not to go that route and still run a winning campaign... and he just might so stay tuned there.



• As long as we're talking about the "persecution" narrative, the relative pettiness of these charges (not saying that they aren't valid) does tempt one to question the political motivations of the US Attorney's office.. particularly under the current US Dept of Justice regime.



• On the other hand, if the federal probe is going to continue.. where might it lead next? There are some intriguing possibilities there.



• Finally.. and perhaps most importantly.. what could this mean for OT's acting career?

Update: Thomas's public announcement was pretty straightforward and indicates that he probably won't attempt to play the persecution card in any future political endeavor... which is good.